Solheim Cup: Team USA ready to defend at Des Moines

Danielle Kang vaulted up the Solheim Cup rankings with her KPMG Women’s PGA Championship victory at Olympia Fields last month. Des Moines will be her Solheim Cup debut.

Kang is a talented and highly competitive player but the bulk of her competition as both an amateur and a pro has been in conventional stroke play events.  She twice won the U.S. Women’s Amateur (2010 & 2011) and was low amateur at the 2011 Ricoh Women’s British Open. Although the Women’s PGA Championship was her first pro victory, Kang has been a consistent cut-maker since her 2012 LPGA rookie year.

Kang brings a solid, well-rounded game to Des Moines and has the potential to nicely serve Team USA. The challenge for Captain Inkster will be identifying how best to pair Kang for the foursomes and fourball matches. There’s going to be some on-the-job training in match play strategy involved in ensuring that the team reaps the benefit of her talent.

Likely pairings for Kang would be Korda and one of the most tactically skilled players on Team USA, Stacy Lewis.